Valcke rubbishes protesters World Cup claims

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has slammed anti-World Cup protesters after the latest demonstrations in Brazil.

Published

15 March 2014

Months of protests have occurred in the South American nation against the estimated $11billion price-tag for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which starts on June 12.

Demonstrators argue the money would be better spent on improving poor public services, and they chanted 'there will be no Cup' during protests in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.

But Valcke said FIFA used no public money for the tournament and were injecting millions into Brazil.

"FIFA is not using any public money," he said.

"FIFA is not using any money from Brazil, except that you would say the Brazilian commercial partners who have signed the contract with FIFA to activate their brands at the World Cup.

"What FIFA actually injects in the country itself is around $800million.

"FIFA is not asking for any financial support from the Brazilian authorities and whatever is spent by the cities, by the government will remain within the country.

"It is infrastructure, it is a number of things that will be used by the country and will not be taken away from the country by FIFA when we fly away from Brazil on the 14th of July after the final."

Valcke has much greater concerns ahead of Brazil 2014, with facilities and infrastructure a major talking point.

The Frenchman said cities were struggling to be ready, and is particularly worried about the Porto Alegre stadium.

"To be clear about what we are talking about - outside the stadium of Porto Alegre there is no pavement," Valcke said.

"I mean, we cannot put in place all the TV compound, all the hospitality compound, all these different zones without any pavement.

"These are the challenges we are facing and what we are facing is a race to be ready on time for the first game which will take place in these stadiums.

"And it's a race not just for FIFA but the local organising committee, the government and the host cites which are still in the race to have their stadiums and their facilities and their infrastructure in the cities ready to welcome the world for this World Cup."